Page 129 of The Wrecked One

“She didn’t want to lose our ties with the Sorens, or with The Collective, and she was concerned if we didn’t have a child to pass the role down to, they wouldn’t just cut us out, they’d kill us for knowing too much. She told The Collective we adopted you because I was unable to have children. She placed me in an impossible position by doing that. If they were to find out what she really did, because I turned you back over to your family, The Collective would kill us. Not just the two of us, but you as well and your real family. Anyone connected to anything. That’s who they are. No loose strings. Nothing to bind anything to them. Meryl knew this, and she held it over my head. It’s why I couldn’t give you back.”

He began muttering in Italian, which I didn’t even know he spoke so fluently. Apparently, I knew nothing about him at all.

“How did you . . . I don’t understand.” Tears finally managed to cut through my shock, and Oliver’s hand tightened a bit at my side, his quiet way of reminding me he was there for me.

“Meryl had everything planned from the moment she made her decision and chose you as the child to take. She’d learned how to condition you, to help you forget who you really were.” He cleared his throat. “Who you really are, I mean. She kept your first and middle names the same. Worked on eliminating your accent. Taught you English.” He shook his head. “We moved to New York after that, and had the bogus adoption records sealed. No one would ever know you weren’t our biological child, just like she wanted.”

“Who are my real parents? Where are they? You must know if you really had considered giving me back.” I swiped at my tears, my eyes burning, then pushed away from the wall. Oliver went right along with me as I edged closer to the table.

This wasn’t the line of questioning that’d help the President, so I’d have to pivot from the holy-shit moment soon, but I had to know where I came from.

I had a family somewhere out there, and they lost their child. I’d been searching my whole life for that missing piece, never knowing it was them I was looking for.

The running. The fear of falling, both literally and figuratively. It was all because of this one evil woman stealing me when I was three and altering my entire life.

“I looked into who reported their child missing near that park. So yes, I know who they are. I’ve checked in on them over the years. Your parents are still married, in the same house they were living in back when she took you in Florence.” His lips rolled inward, and his eyes tightened into thin slits. “There’s one more thing.”

I knew he was about to level me with something that’d send me reeling even more than I already was. “What?”

“You have a twin sister.”

51

MYA

“Not identical, but she’s your twin. Her name is Adelina. She moved to the U.S. for college, and she’s been living in the States ever since.” His words pounded through me. That was it. The knockout punch, and I went down.

Oliver dropped next to me as I crumpled like a piece of paper, balled up and ready to be thrown out.

Panic set in. Quick breaths. Gasping for air as I wrapped my arms around my knees, trying not to faint as I finally saw the complete puzzle of my life. The final piece was in place.

Not just taken from my parents, I’d been separated from my twin.

I truly believed twins were linked in a special way. I’d spent thirty years of my life without my family, deprived of the bond that my subconscious knew was out there. That I’d been constantly searching for . . .

“I know you hate me, and I’m so sorry, but I promise I’ll make this right. I’ve only ever tried to protect you, knowing I’d tell you the truth once the time was right to take down The Collective.”

I slowly lifted my head, barely able to see through the haze of my tears as he removed the ring from his finger.

“Get this to your people.” He held the ring up, the cuffs clinking against the table in the process, the sound jarring in the small room, but cutting through more of my daze. “Snap this apart, and inside you’ll find a small microchip.” He rattled off a nine-digit encryption code next. “There’s over a hundred and fifty names on the file. High-level people who work with or for them. There are now ten families left in The Collective since you wiped out the Sorens, and they’ve yet to replace the last family recently taken down before that. But there’s never more than twelve at a time.”

“Like the hands on a clock,” I murmured, unsure where that foggy thought came from. “You’re not part of the twelve?”

“No, my family has been linked to them since the very beginning but doesn’t sit at the table,” he explained.

And Meryl wanted that. Ugh.

“The Collective doesn’t know I have this intel on them, but they’ll try and stop you from getting to something else,” he went on, his tone grave and serious.

I freed my knees and shifted back to rest on my heels as Oliver rubbed my back, continuing to remain a quiet, steady presence. I knew he’d decided to let me handle this my way instead of hijacking the conversation with warnings or threats. I appreciated that.

“The ring. Will you take it from him?” I asked Oliver while looking at him. “It’s okay, you can leave my side for a second,” I added at the sign of his hesitancy.

“What do you do for them?” I finally asked as Oliver stood to retrieve the ring.

I’d circle back to the fact I was kidnapped later. We had a world of families to save from evil, not just mine.

“The Collective has been around for hundreds of years, and they’ve gone relatively unnoticed by others, untouchable until your people came after them.” A hint of a smile, as if impressed or proud, ghosted his lips. “It wasn’t until recently they started taking out their own families, claiming it was to protect what they considered to be the greater good of both the organization as well as the world.”

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